
Class E45? 
Book .S4-3, 



'M 






PRESIDENT LINCOLN 



IIV 



HISTORY. 

A FAST-DAY ADDRESS, 

June 1st. 1865. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN HISTORY. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED IN THE 



$0tt(JMpti0tttti $luttrlt, 



MILTON, WISCONSIN, 



FAST DAY, JUNE 1st, 1865, 

BY 

EDWARD SEARING. A. M., 

Professor of Langnages in Milton Academy. 



JANESYILLE: 

VSEDER & DEVEREUX, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 

1865. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN HISTORY. 



ADDRESS. 



Four years ago last November, the nation had elected a Presi- 
dent in accordance with the customary and time honored provisions 
of the Constitution. The previous canvass had been somewhat 
unusually exciting, but no human being doubted the legitimacy 
of the election. When the result was known, the people occupy- 
ing one-half the national territory — a region more than four times 
the size of the French Empire — rose in open and defiant rebellion. 
They were twelve millions strong. They had anticipated the 
movement, had established concert of action ; and had, by previ- 
ous control of the Government, silently withdrawn from the loyal 
part of the nation arms for their defense. They had seized all the 
government forts, arsenals, and other property within their limits, 
and had scattered the few government vessels to the four quarters 
of the globe. They were actuated by an almost unanimous senti- 
ment of bitter hatred. They possessed a warlike instead of a man- 
ufacturing or commercial spirit. Their leaders were soldiers and 
statesmen of experience and ability. Jealousy won for them the 
sympathy of other nations, by whom our great experiment of self- 
government was now boldly and exultingly declared to be a failure. 

Ah, what dark and portentous days were those between the 
election of November 6th and that 11th of February following, 
when tbe President elect left his humble home at Springfield to 
assumed at the nation's capital, "the robes of his majestic office." 
What other hundred days in our history were ever so ominous of 
evil ? Treason openly flung its insolent defiance at the Government 
in the Halls of Congress. Senators and Representatives, as they 
resigned their seats, bade adieu to their northern brethren, assert- 



ing that they should meet them no more, except as representatives 
of a foreign power, or upon the field of battle. An imbecile old 
man, the shadow of a President, looked helplessly on, and raised 
scarcely a finger to check the impious assaults upon the Govern- 
ment and the Constitution he had sworn to protect. What man- 
ner of man must he be, who, with keen eye and strong arm and 
trumjpet voice, could seize the helm at such a time, and, undaunted, 
with a trust in God and a confidence in the vessel, conduct the 
Ship of State safely through the storm 1 Where could be found, 
combined in one man, the varied powers that should preserve uni- 
ty to the nation, hurl destruction and punishment upon treason, 
command the respect and fear of foreign powers, and proclaim their 
possessor hero through all succeeding ages ? Did we see in the 
President elect the man who would prove equal to the emergency ? 
We hoped it — pra} r ed for it — nothing more. We believed 
him to be honest and earnest, and we respected him. We had 
elected him President and we houored him ; but in our hearts we 
feared the result while we hoped for the best. Mr. Lincoln was 
not a statesman when statesmanship was most wanted. He had 
no military reputation when he might necessarily become the com- 
mander-in-chief of vast armies. His appearance was against him. 
So far from looking the hero, he was tall, and gaunt, and angular, 
and awkard. His name was against him. It was not heroic ; it 
vsted ideas of ancient patriarchal simplicity and virtue rather 
than of modern statesmanship. It was abbreviated into a half famil- 
iar, half contemptuous appellative which contributed quite as much 
to dispel any heroic sentiment within us as did the ungainly figure 
\Y\± ori</in was against him. He had sprung from the 
lowest ranks, had been flatboatman, railsplitter, farm laborer, had 
not received the culture of the schools. The cultivated, refined, 
but rebellious South fairly exhausted upon him the abusive and 
contemptuous epithets of the language ; while his political enemies 
at the North were scarcely behind them in vituperation aimed athis 
origin and his persxmaJ appearance. The leading pictorial newspa- 
per of the country, issued by one of the most influential and re- 
spectable publishing houses of New York, and visiting thousands 
of refined and aristocratic homes, was for weeks the repository of 
ridiculous and disgraceful carricatures representing the President 
elect, at one time, a^ grossly intoxicated, as carousing and joking 



with his friends while on the way to the National Capital, on the 
very eve of his country's ruin, and in all ways seeking to bring 
into suspicion and contempt the one whom the determined and 
sober voice of the couutry had called to conduct her through fear- 
ful and unknown perils. 

Doubt and suspicion and ridicule were not enough ; but the 
evil brain of conspiracy planned assassination, and the future Pres- 
dent was forced to pass through Baltimore in disguise, and arrived 
in his own Capital, almost a fugitive, before he was expected, and 
with no demonstrations of welcome. 

Never were the souls of men more deeply stirred. The South 
was a great volcano of passion, beneath which the lurid fires of 
jealousy, of hatred, of treason and of human'oppression had gather- 
ed their forces to rend asunder a continent. The air was filled, as 
it were, with noxious and maddening gases. Clouds intercepted 
the rays of the sun that had so gloriously illuminated the nation for 
eighty years. The country was in the portentous eve of a fearful 
conflict, a great domestic revolution whose end no man might fore- 
see, but whose destructive forces all men must fear. Never was 
the legitimate ruler of a nation called to so great a task, — never, hu- 
manly speaking, under so discouraging circumstances. 

Thirty-four days after his inauguration came the attack upon 
Sumter, which formally lighted the fires of a conflict that continued 
throughout his entire term of office. "War had never before been 
waged on so gigantic a scale. The mightiest exhibitions of Roman 
military power are dwarfed by the comparison. The expedition of 
Athens against Syracuse, that almost annihilated the military and 
naval power of the greatest of Grecian States, falls into insignifi- 
cance. Modern Europe, even, can furnish no parallels, for in our 
contest the contending sections were each larger than all Europe, 
with the exception of Russia, — while on the one side there has 
been a complete exhaustion of military power, and on the other, if 
not the utmost development of resources, still a development that 
is beyond all record and that marks the Northern States alone as 
the most formidable national power that has ever existed on earth. 
Napoleon Bonaparte never had under his command so many troops 
as Gen. Grant has controlled during the last year and more, nev- 
er had for his campaigns so large a field, and probably never con- 
tended against forces inspired by such fierce, individual hatred. 



The four long, bloody years roll away. The gigantic operations 
of offensive warfare have won gradual but sure success. Rebellion 
is tottering but yet defiant. Slavery, its atrocious instigator and 
support, has received its death blow, when the nation pauses a 
moment, at the accustomed interval, to select its quadrennial ruler. 
Its fate appeals momentarially'from the physical contest with bul- 
lets to the political and peaceful contest with ballots, and on the 
eighth of November the people re-elect by an overwhelming major- 
ity, such as no President since the days of Washington had re- 
ceived, that same tall, angular, ungraceful man who had gone in 
disguise to his own first inauguration. 

When the following fourth of March came the nation's capital 
presented a brilliant scene. Joy was upon all faces. Loyal thou- 
sands thronged the streets, and the President read in the counte- 
nances and acclamations of all, such confidence and love as a ruler 
but seldom receives. So great is the contrast with the circumstan- 
ces of the first consecration to the exalted office, that the corres- 
pondent of the London Illustrated News, in describing the events 
of inauguration day, with its crowds, its enthusiasm, its manifesta- 
tions of confidence and regard, is so impressed with the pageant 
that even his critical eye sees no want of dignity and even courtli- 
ness in him whom the voice of the nation had twice exalted, and 
he describes the President as bowing gracefully from his carriage 
to the applauding multitudes, and appearing as a " ruler to the 
manor born." How wonderful the change ! The man was the 
same — the nation, the world was different. 

Then came those brilliant and final successes of wise general- 
ship. Savannah, Charleston and Richmond fell; the arch traitors 
fled; the grand army of the rebellion was almost annihilated; Lee 
surrendered with its remnant; the great contest was finished al- 
most as suddenly as it had commenced ; the unity of the nation 
wa-s vindicated, and such joy, pure, intense, legitimate, beat in the 
popular heart that men feared they were dreaming. Even trade 
forgot its gains and with uncovered head and tearful eyes sang 
hymns in the crowded streets. Night was made luminous with 
bonfires, while the thunder of cannon and the ringing of bells pro- 
claimed throughout the land the glorious issue of so many sacrifi- 
ces. The wisdom of the national choice in the re-election of the 
President was doubly eottfirme 1. Jfen who had doubted him now 



doubted him no longer. Those who had trusted him now trusted 
and honored and loved him still more. All eyes had followed him 
towards Richmond, had read with delight the dispatches over his 
own name announcing the glorious results, saw him at last in the 
rebellious capital, watched his return, and beheld in all his acts 
and words in the moment of victory the wisdom and moderation 
that foretold a speedy recovery from the wounds of war. 

Ah, happy days ! The long sacrifice completed and accepted. 
Indivisible nationality and universal liberty bought and paid for — 
paid for with a heavy price, but — paid for. In the past, the toil 
and sacrifice, the doubt and fear, the blood and anguish, and in 
the past, the sin. In the future, peace, and union, and prosperity, 
and glory unspeakable ! " To thee, Father Abraham, next to the 
Sovereign Ruler of nations, do we owe all this. Under thy wise 
and virtuous guidance we have prevailed. In thee we behold the 
embodiment of all that is best in us — wisdom, moderation, generos- 
ity, forgiveness, patience, trust, firmness — all the virtues of the 
christian, the patriot and the statesman. When the mighty work 
is entirely finished, thou shalt find in our gratitude and affection, 
all the reward we can bestow ; thou shalt see in the united and 
prosperous nation, such a monument to thy wisdom as ruler never 
yet had." 

Thus spoke or felt the joyous, grateful country during those 
first pleasant days of April. On the morning of the 15th of that 
month — mournful, ill-omened day — came, as an awful thunderbolt 
from a clear sky, the stunning, bewildering, incredible report that 
our wise, great and good Father Abraham was dead — stricken 
down by base assassination in a moment, and unwarned. 

It is not mine to describe the horror, the grief, the unspeakable 
anguish that prevaded all hearts so lately filled with joy. The 
sorrow is still with us, softened by the kindly hand of time, but 
still painful and not soon to pass away. The mournful funeral pa- 
geant has traversed half the continent, called forth through all its 
route such tributes of sorrow and veneration as it may be safely 
asserted no human being ever before received, and has consigned 
into the bosom of our sister State the honored remains of the be- 
loved President. Abraham Lincoln is no longer upon earth, ex- 
cept in the memories and records of men, and in the work he has 
accomplished. In these he still lives and is destined to live and to 



continue a great moving force among men. Now that his career 
is closed it becomes a most interesting question with us what is to 
be this man's position in History ? What is the true measure of 
his greatness ? It is always difficult for contemporaries to form 
ju.-t opinions of great men or great events. The impartial histori- 
an needs to be separated by generations from the events he calmly 
and truthfully describes. But the more I reflect upon the ad- 
ministration of Abraham Lincoln, in the light of what little knowl- 
edge of history I possess, the firmer becomes my conviction that in 
this case contemporary judgment must award far too little rather 
rather than too much praise — must greatly underestimate the 
character with which it is so familiar. It is now my deep convic- 
tion, born of a careful study of history for many years, and of some 
reflection upon the events that have occurred in our country since 
the election of 1860, that the sober judgment of future historians, 
who shall write of this period unbiased by the partisanship of the 
present, will, on the authority of such facts as I have already 
briefly mentioned, declare Abraham Lincoln to have been second 
to no man, either in the principles or in the successful practice of 
wise statesmanship. This is no opinion begotten by the grief and 
excitement of the hour. It was almost as definite a conviction 
during the last year of the President's life, as it has been since his 
melancholy death Seven months ago, as some of you may remem- 
ber, I expressed it as earnestly and as confidently as I can do it 
now. But history will go further than this. Upon other facts she 
will found other and still higher fame for this man, who, like a 
meteor, shot forth first to the astonishment and then to the admi- 
ration of the world, and like a meteor as suddenly withdrew. 

Let us now proceed to a closer discussion of this President's 
claim to the peculiar position 1 believe he will hold in history, and 
in order to follow method, let us consider in their order, first, his 
Statesmanship, then his Intellectual Capacity, and, lastly, his 
Manhood. 

STATESMANSHIP. 

Respecting his statesmanship, I have said he began to develop 
it under circumstances most unfavorable. He was without early 
education and without experience. Born in the most humble sta- 
tion, passing his boyhood in a log cabin, being in his early man- 
hood a farm laborer, a flatboatman, a worker in a saw mill; be- 



9 

coming afterwards a captain in Indian border warfare, then a 
surveyor and member of the State Legislature, we find him at the 
age of twenty-seven admitted to the bar, and the next year, as it 
is said, so poor, that his surveying instruments were sold under 
execution. He is successful as a lawyer and when thirty-eight is 
elected to Congress, where he serves but one term, and then re- 
sumes his profession — successful — but with only a local reputation, 
and unknown out of his State until the discussion with Douglas, 
which is fresh in the memory of us all. 

How could the leadership of a great nation in a time of unparal- 
leled danger from foes at home and abroad be confidently entrusted 
to a man thus untrained and unknown ? By what inspiration from 
Heaven was he suddenly elevated above statesmen of long experi- 
ence and of world wide reputation ? No sooner is he fairly invest- 
ed with the robes of office than he begins the exercise of consum- 
mate statesmanship in the selection of his Cabinet. Some of its 
members were almost unknown to the country before, but with a 
knowledge of character which time proved to be seldom at fault 
he selected men who have been as great in their positions as was 
he in his own. Then how conciliatory, and moderate, yet firm and 
every way admirable his opening policy. How excellent the spir- 
it of that first inaugural and first message — the embodiment of 
clear, passionless, logical wisdom and forethought, that see, through 
the gathering clouds, the inevitable result, and appeal to angry 
passion in words unsurpassed in their force and directness. 

The country began to feel at once the control of a strong and 
earnest man. The surest sign that a vigorous hand was at the 
helm appeared in the new epithets of foes in the North as well as 
in the South. The adjectives that implied incapacity, vulgar ori- 
gin, unseemly levity, &c, were soon changed for those indicative 
of unlawful authority. The "boor" had become a "tyrant," the 
" railsplitter" was transformed into a " usurper," " imbecility" 
became "despotism," which had its "minions" secretly filling 
prisons, suppressing newspapers, and disregarding all constitution- 
al landmarks. But nothing could provoke the patient, trustful, de- 
tjrmined man. When the gigantic proportions of the rebellion 
became fully developed and myriads of men had sprung to amis 
at the call of the President, alike in success and in disaster, he was 
the same passionless, hopeful, clear-minded, patient, indefatigable 
leader. Nothing discouraged him. Nothing elated him. Noth- 
ing wearied him. Nothing provoked him. Confident in the ultimate 



10 

triumph of right he worked on, and we all now know how well he 
worked. I am quite ready to admit what cannot be denied, and 
what constitutes the chief glory of this man, that his power was al- 
most absolute — as absolute as that of the Emperor of France or the 
Czar of Russia. Il is herein that his greatness consists. In con- 
centration of power in a crisis like this lies tbe only salvation of 
a people. Mr. Lincoln knew it. The people knew it, and feel- 
ing no mistrust of him whose name was a synonym of honesty, 
they gladly saw in his hands real dictatorial powers. 

It has been often said that the chief success of this President 
came from his dexterity in watching tbe progress of public opin- 
ion, that he was in no high sense a ruler, but only the herald who 
proclaimed from time to time the popular will. I believe this 
statement to be utterly without foundation. Although Mr. Lin- 
coln himself declared that he had not controlled events, but that 
events had controlled him, this, if indeed it be anything more than 
modesty unable to see its own worth, in no way detracts from the 
merit of his uniform success. No man — no statesman — can " control 
events," in any large sense, or, in other words, there is in society 
a sequence of cause and effect which operates in spite of men. 
Wise statesmen recognize this, and subordinating themselves to the 
divine laws in society, they govern by the skillful use of the forces 
which opportunities or "events" throw in their path. He who 
seeks to go further than this, he who seeks to control events by 
disregarding the constitution of things will miserably fail in the 
end, as did Napoleon Bonaparte, and as will all oppressors to the 
end of time. 

Abraham Lincoln's statesmanship consisted in a wise use of the 
means that the progress of events rendered necessary. He did 
not look to others for information as to what means were proper at 
particular times. A great rebellion was inaugurated when he 
came into office. He knew it to be causeless and he determined 
that war should be unmistakably forced upon the government, if 
it came at all, and so the first means employed were reason and 
appeals to the better sense of the South. Stronger weapons of this 
kind could no man use than those employed by the newly elected 
President. Events, however, immediately proved their impote.ncy, 
and a call was made for an armed force. "When the preparation 
and determination of the South were found to be much greater 
than expected, events demauded and the President summoned a 
far larger army. When it became evident that the liberation of 



11 

the slaves was a military necessity, as well as an act of justice, the 
President again proved himself equal to the emergency. No man 
saw it sooner than himself, and no man could have issued the 
proclamation of freedom with more dignity and firmness than did 
its immortal author. When the time came for the amendment to 
the constitution, destroying forever the last vestige of slavery, then 
again Abraham Lincoln showed himself the statesman, the leader, 
the hero. These were the words he uttered in his message of De- 
cember 1st, 1862, and do you not recognize in them the utterance 
of one who fully understood the period and had all the qualities of 
command ? They are some of the noblest words in all history, 
and centuries hence they will be read with a delight and veneration 
that will put to shame the partial unbelief of the present. He says : 

" The dog'.nas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The 
occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As 
our case is new so we must think anew. We must disinthrall ourselves and 
then we shall save our country. 

" Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and 
this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal 
significance or insignificance can spare one or another of U3. The fiery trial 
through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to 
the latest generation. We say that we are for the Union. The world will 
not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world 
knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power and 
bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to 
the free — honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall 
nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may suc- 
ceed ; this could not, cannot fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just 
— a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud and God must for- 
ever bless." — Message, Dec. 1, 1862. 

Never believe that this man did not possess and exercise all the 
great qualities of the most successful rulers. Do not believe that 
his statesmanship consisted in feeling the popular pulse and in 
daring only to do whatthat index suggested. No, he was in all senses 
an original character. The springs of his action were within his 
own capacious soul. He respected the popular will which had el- 
evated him to his position, but he knew that it was no safe guide 
in so perilous a crisis. When the people said, " Let England feel 
our indignation for her recognition of the belligerent confederacy, 
for her blockade running and her privateers," the President said 
" No. One war at a time." When the people said " Let Maxi- 
milian leave Mexico by our command." the President replied 
" No. Let us first conclude our civil war." The people sustained 
Fremont, and the President dismissed him. The people clamored 
for the death of slavery and the President delayed the proclama- 
tion until its success should be placed beyond question. 



12 

War with England or France, which the President might have 
precipitated by a word, would have prolonged the contest for 
years. The earlier issue of the Proclamation and the employment 
of Negro troops, would have divided the North, and not unlikely 
have destroyed the nation. Neither ean I censure the policy 
which at first called for only 75,000 men. More strenuous efforts 
to subdue would have provoked more strenuous efforts to defend. 
Five hundred thousand troops under inexperienced leaders, and 
in a strange country, would have met defeat at the hands of three- 
fifths the number. The South was far better prepared than we, 
and had all the advantages of defensive action. From the day of 
Lincoln's election the movement of the South was a gigantic revo- 
lution rather than a rebellion, and this revolution could only be 
subdued by time, and abundant means, and disciplined armies, and 
wise generalship. Those who assert that the feeble and inadequate 
first efforts of the administration prolonged the war, talk both with- 
out a knowledge of the history of other wars, and in entire forget- 
fulness of the unexampled circumstances of difficulty which trea- 
son and imbecility had bequeathed to the new administration. 

But suppose that 500,000 troops could have been brought into 
the field at once, and could have been uniformed, and armed, and 
disciplined, and well directed, and could have, by one lucky blow, 
broken the forces of the Rebellion. Slavery would have remain- 
ed — inextinguishable hatred and jealousy would have remained. If 
the prolongation of the war was a blunder, let us thank God for 
the blunder, since of the incapacity of men He has taken advan- 
tage to rid the earth of its worst relic of barbarism, to free civiliza- 
tion from its foulest stain, and to demonstrate to all mankind the 
inherent strength, excellence, and enduring vitality of national 
self-government. If ever the hand of Glod was visible in the af- 
fairs of nations it has been made manifest in this struggle, and we 
cannot, therefore, censure the early acts of the President, if, as I 
deny, they prolonged the struggle, for the results have been glo- 
rious beyond human expectation. 

I have believed from the outset, and on former occasions have 
endeavored to prove that " from the nature of the circumstances 
the war was destined to be long, costly and bloody." [n this com- 
paratively early conclusion of a contest which I Lad expected at 
least to equal in time the struggle that gave us national existence, 
I find the very best evidence of wise statesmanship — the indisputa- 



13 

ble evidence of success — the only proof in respect to which all men 
are of one mind. 

INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY. 

Secondly. Abraham Lincoln was intellectually a remarkable 
man. I do not merely adduce in support of this, the fact that for 
four years he was at the head of the greatest nation of the earth, 
and with almost absolute powers conducted it safely through an 
unparalleled domestic war, and at his death was sincerely mourned 
by the two hemispheres. This alone would place him in the front 
rank of great minds. 

There is other evidence, less obvious, but no less important to 
the scholar, for he sees the man as much in Ms xoords as in his 
deeds, and the fame of Lincoln will in future ages be no less in- 
debted to what he said than to what he did. 

The great discussion with Douglas first brought prominently be- 
fore the nation the rare ability of his opponent. Too little, in my 
opinion has been said of this debate by those who have eulogized 
the late President, and for this simple reason that without this dis- 
cussion his nomination would have been un thought of. It was those 
speeches against Douglas that made him President. Douglas, per- 
haps, was the ablest debater the nation ever produced. He was an ex- 
perienced politician, and, I may say, statesman. His fluency, shrewd- 
ness, energy and audacity were boundless. His arms were those of 
both truth and sophistry, and so bright and glittering, and wielded 
with so much skill and agility and energy, that men stood amazed 
at the display. I am inclined to regard his speeches during the 
campaign of 1860 as one of the few greatest intellectual efforts on 
record. With a heart to match his head, with a sincerity to equal 
his energy, and fighting unmistakably on the side of freedom and 
progress. Douglas would have been unapproachable. Such was 
the man challenged by Lincoln — at that time scarcely known out 
of his own State, but strong in his integrity and in the immutable 
truth as beheld by his clear vision. The discussion became almost 
a national affair. Thousands flocked to hear the champions. Hun- 
dreds of thousands read the reported speeches, and the name of 
Lincoln became as well known as that of Douglas. During a por- 
tion of this debate I was at the East and I well remember the gen- 
eral interest manifested even there in this combat of the Western 
giants. The impartial reader of the discussion cannot fail to see 
that Douglas had found his match in a man whose conscience 
spoke with his intellect, whose words were the utterance of 



14 
deep convictions, whose good hmnor and wit were inexhaustible, 
whose sentences, if quaintly shaped, at times, were nevertheless the 
potent embodiment of both history and prophecy. The man who 
could meet Douglas on repeated occasions, before immense audien- 
ces, who could keep his temper in the midst of misrepresentation, 
who would in no instance descend to personality and coarse denun- 
ciation in one of the fiercest political contests recorded, who could 
expose the sophistries of his opponent so conclusively and present 
so clearly the doctrines of his own party, and utter occasionally 
sentences so weighty with truth and so felicitously expressed as to 
linger afterwards in the memory of men as household words- 
while a full report of the discussion should be extensively circula- 
ted as a most successful campaign document — the man, I say, who 
could do this, as Abraham Lincoln did, must be no common man 
—must be intellectually the peer of the nation's greatest and 
ablest men. 

In the fall of 1859 he made in Columbus, Ohio, and in Cincin- 
nati, two powerful and effective speeches which contributed much 
to extend his reputation, and on the 27th of February following, 
he delivered in New York City the celebrated Cooper Institute 
speech, enthusiastically received by an immense audience and gen- 
erally acknowledged at the time, by Republicans, to be. with 
scarcely an exception, the clearest and most satisfactory statement 
of the great truths at issue that had been presented. 

His messages, proclamations and speeches, from his farewell re- 
marks at Springfield, to his last utterances in Washington, mark 
him still more unmistakably as a man of rare and peculiar intellectual 
power. It has been my pleasure during the last few weeks to re- 
read most of these and I have been very deeply impressed by a 
union of simplicity, perspicuity, logical brevity, earnestness, unself- 
ishness and profound conviction, whose parallel I know not 
where to find. Some of them moved me almost as the utterances 
of a superior being from another world, who had been led here by 
no other motive than sympathy for struggling humanity, who had 
here no shadow of personal interest to detain or influence him. 
whose penetrating intelligence saw, beyond the clouds of human 
ignorance and passion, the true interests of mankind, and whose 
only aim was, by a temporary sojourn, to break the bonds of op- 
pression, extend the benign influence of freedom, qualify man for 
qaanent self-government, and then withdraw to his own brighter 
spheres. 



15 

So far as I am able to judge this man's intellect, it was eminent- 
ly clear, dispassionate and logical. His conceptions of truth were 
unusually vivid, but he generally arrived at truth through logical 
demonstration, and he sought by the same means to convince oth- 
ers. He always appealed to the judgment — -to the passions never. 
To large natural reasoning powers there were added the discipline 
and culture of legal studies and practice. And then above all was the 
moral element of perfect integrity, honesty of purpose — the ever 
present guiding star of his intellect. Although without the ad- 
vantages of a literary education, his power of statement and verbal 
illustration was as remarkable as his keen, logical sense. Few 
men could equal and no man surpass him in the clear and brief 
statement of a truth. More logical and irresistibly convincing 
arguments were never made in the same space on any subject, 
than the Cooper Institute speech, the first message at the extra 
session of Congress, July 4th ,1861, the message of Dec. 1st, 1862, 
and the " Springfield Letter " of August 26th, 1863. His style is 
not always polished but it is invariably vigorous, clear, and at times 
lofty and sublime. There are many passages of great power and 
beauty that give evidence of no small imaginative and poetical 
ability, and that will live in the memory of men and rank among 
the finest specimens of English prose. These, however, are al- 
most invariably brief — subordinated to the higher purposes of rea- 
son. 

I had marked several passages for illustration but I found that 
to introduce them would extend my remarks beyond the proper 
limit, and as they are, or ought to be, well known to all, to present 
them would perhaps be superfluous. 

MANHOOD. 

Having given you an estimate of President Lincoln's statesman- 
ship and of his intellectual capacity, I now come to the third and 
last division of my subject. Great, illustrious and successful as 
was his statesmanship — clear, penetrating and vigorous as I 
have shown his intellect to have been, his manhood must be ac- 
knowledged as that which has most enshrined him in the hearts of his 
contemporaries. " Good," "noble," "generous," "genial " — these 
are the adjectives now applied to him more frequently than " great," 
or " far-sighted," or " statesmanlike." A day will come, however, 
when this will be reversed. That personal affection which all felt 
for him, and which in no small degree excluded the sense of his 
real intellectual and political greatness, will pass away with the 



16 

generation possessing it, and in future years it is likely the politi- 
cal speaker and writer, the emancipator, the statesman will domin- 
ate over his personal character — those social and moral features 
which I comprehend under the term manhood. 

Mr. Lincoln was. by universal consent of those who were per- 
sonally acquainted with him, one of the most faultless examples of 
true manhood ever prominently exhibited to the world. In this 
respect it is probable that he stands absolutely alone among rulers. 
I know of no historical character who will bear even comparison 
with him, unless it be Henry the Fourth, the illustrious king of 
French Annals, or William, Prince of Orange, the hero of the Nether- 
lands, both of whom, like our President, were suddenly removed 
by the acts of assassins from the midst of a people by whom they 
were idolized. Mr. Lincoln had, beneath the head of a statesman, 
the gentle and sympathizing heart of a woman. He would, even 
in the discharge of duty, willingly inflict pain upon no one. His 
kind heart never contained anger even towards those who plotted 
for the destruction of his country or of his own life. He was, 
moreover, totally unselfish. No ruler could think less of the hon- 
ors and emoluments of office. Principle was far above all personal 
considerations. This is seen in all he said and did. Take for ex- 
ample these words from a speech during the contest with Douglas : 

" Think nothing of me, take no thought for t^e political fate of any man 
whomsoever, but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Inde- 
dence. You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these 
sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may 
take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly 
honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than an 
anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought 
for any man's success. It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is noth- 
ing. But do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity — the Declaration 
of American Independence." 

This charity towards all, and this unselfishness, manifested 
through all his life seemed to be both constitutional and the result 
of principle. His disposition was, by nature, melancholy. The 
habitual expression of his face was sad. He seemed to be, like an 
old Puritan, under the constant presence of the idea of the fleet- 
ing, unsubstantial nature of earthly things. This is seen on many 
occasions in his speeches, writings and conversations, and especi- 
ally in his favorite and now well known poem beginning with the 
line, 

"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" 

The great truth of the transitory nature of earthly blessings he 
seemed to realize with that same vividness with which he saw po- 



17 

litical or moral truths ; and then with his usual logical consisten- 
cy — the most remarkable characteristic of his mind, as I have 
shown, — he, in accordance therewith, controlled his emotions, and 
shaped his acts, and pointed the shafts of his reason. 

Unlike the puritanic character, however, this melancholy was 
only the groundwork of his nature. As a relief to its sombre col- 
oring, he possessed a remarkable appreciation of the humorous, 
and the degree to which he indulged what I may call a propensi- 
ty in this direction, has been the subject of much remark and no 
little harsh judgment. If it could be shown that his story telling 
propensity diminished, in any degree, the respect due his office, 
this may possibly be considered the one trifling blemish upon his 
fair fame ; but it is certain that his love of humor was not only entirely 
harmless in all its manifestations, but by his own statement, even nec- 
essary to his well being, as a relaxation in the midst of unexam- 
pled cares and anxieties. I believe that it also contributed much 
to his popularity with the armies and with the mass of the nation, 
and never detracted from the respect due him, or from his influenec. 

His relations with all who came in contact with him were such 
as to inspire confidence, respect and esteem, and the more intimate- 
ly he was known the more highly was he regarded. Secretary 
Seward, the most accomplished and experienced statesman of the 
country — his rival at the Chicago Convention, and his chief coun- 
selor during his entire administration — has declared since the Pres- 
ident's death that "he was the bestman he ever knew." Secretary 
Stanton, another whose name will grow in history, loved him as an 
elder brother. Edward Everett, than whom no man was better 
qualified to judge, and himself the very impersonation of graceful 
dignity, declared that at the Gettysburg celebration, President 
Lincoln was, in the dignity of his bearing, the peer of the proud- 
est assembled on that glorious field. 

Constantly surrounded as he was by the first talent of the coun- 
try, by men of the widest culture, the greatest experience, men 
familiar with other countries, men who, in ordinary times, would 
themselves honorably fill the Presidential office — he never, so far 
as we know, with all his many inches, failed to be, in the eyes of 
all who knew him, every inch a President. 

When, my friends, was there ever a more perfect manhood ? 
Where in high office can be found in all History his equal ? I 
confess that I have searched in vain for some fault that would 
seem to link this man more closely to our common and imperfect 



18 

humanity. So far as we know, while he possessed all virtues he 
was free from all vices. In the highest earthly position, he was 
constantly, in practice, and at last by profession a meek and hum- 
ble Christian. With eight millions of enemies in his own country 
— some of whom were constantly thirsting for his blood — he felt 
malice towards none and charity for all. In the very darkest 
hours of his country's cause, when human aid seemed futile, and 
his own friends began to doubt his ability, his trust was undisturb- 
ed, for he felt the righteousness of his cause and believed in the 
omnipotent justice and goodness of God. When success began to 
crown his efforts on all sides, and his own transcendent wisdom and 
excellence appeared to the eyes of men, as the morning of peace 
lifting the broken clouds of war before the full splendors of the 
coming day, there was not the slightest feeling of exultation in his 
heart, nor upon his lips one word of triumph. Ah, then how 
manifest became his greatness. Then how did the popular heart 
open still wider to receive him. Then how loving grew the accents 
of voices that called him " Father Abraham." How faster beat, 
throughout all this great Northwest, the hearts of thousands who 
looked forward to these early June days when they might see this 
common Father of the Country on his promised western visit. 

He has come west, indeed, but joy did not herald his approach. 
He has come west, but the fatherless people through their tears 
could scarcely see the beloved face. He has come West, but it is 
to return no more. 

In conclusion, now, in view of all the circumstances of this man's 
birth, education, character and work, I make no hesitation in as- 
serting my belief that his proper position is above all other public 
men in profane History. 

I confidently declare that he was greater than Washington, as % 
man, and did a much greater work. I say this in all soberness 
from a calm judgment of the simple facts. I would not dim by so 
much as one ray the splendor of Washington's just fame, but as 
the nation that Lincoln saved is greater than the nation that Wash- 
ington founded, so surely must justice declare the defender supe- 
rior to the founder. Washington obtained independence for some 
colonies, and that only with the aid of France. Washington fought 
on the defensive against foes who crossed an ocean to assail him, 
and whose councils were divided by faction. 

Lincoln preserved the integrity of the world's greatest nation 
against twelve millions of foes on its own soil. 



19 

Washington neglected to destroy in the bud, the iniquitous cause 
that, in full bloom, produced the rebellion which Lincoln quelled. 
Washington belonged to one of "the first families of Virginia." 
Lincoln, of obscure and humble origin, destroyed many of the last 
families of that traitorous and degenerate state. 

As his main work, Washington for three millions of men secured 
independence. As an incident in his work, Lincoln to four millions 
gave freedom. Washington's work was great, Lincoln's gigantic. 
Finally, Washington gave to the country his faithful services. 
Lincoln added to these his life. 

Intellectually, I believe Lincoln to have been much superior to 
Washington — superior as a speaker, as a writer and as a clear- 
headed original thinker. There is equality ouly in purity of life, 
singleness and purity of motive, and in unyielding and trustful 
tenacity of effort. 

Abraham Lincoln, far more than any other man the country has 
yet produced, was an embodiment of the national character. He 
was in all senses the representative of the masses who now and 
henceforth are to rule the continent — descendants and heirs of 
New-England enterprise and equality, who have swept westward, 
filled the great northern Mississippi valley with thrift and intelli- 
gence and virtue, swept across the mountains and founded the Pa- 
cific States, and have now vindicated their claim to the whole 
continent. With them is the work of true reconstruction, and not 
with statesmen. Southward shall they now go with their industry, 
their intelligence, their love of freedom, their schools, their news- 
papers and their churches. As surely as the primitive red men 
yielded to the higher civilization of the whites, during the early 
settlement of the country, so surely will the barbarism of slavery, 
with all its attendant ignorance and arrogance, its cruelty and 
faithlessness, its false chivalry, its irreligion and its treason, now 
vanish before the superior right of the intelligent and divinely com- 
missioned republican masses. Reconstruction may be slow but it 
will be sure. It may take years to accomplish it, but years will 
accomplish it. The old feudal aristocracy may at times refuse to 
see destiny, or to obey destiny, but destiny will move on until with- 
in fifty years, South Carolina will be as truly Republican as Mas- 
sachusetts ; Georgia as firm a pillar of the Union as Wisconsin. 

With Abraham Lincoln, therefore, commences a new era in the 
country — the perfect development of the Republican idea. 

May it not be also that with Abraham Lincoln commences a 



20 

new order of statesmanship ? Hitherto Christianity has had lit- 
tle place in the records of statesmen. The world seems to have 
thought it fitting only to adorn private life, and during all these 
1800 years the intercourse of states with one another has been 
governed by the formal and too often jealous and insincere max- 
ims of feudal kings. Christianity is the very basis of our civiliza- 
tion, aud yet where in all history is there such a thing as Chris- 
tian statesmanship? There have been and are still Christian ru- 
lers, but in administration it is " balance of power," it is " na- 
; ona ] aggrandizement." it is this or that selfish or material, "policy" 
•which influences the statesman. Was there ever, before the elec- 
tion of our fallen leader, a ruler so thoroughly under the practical 
control of the simple yet sublime ethics of Christianity ? Were 
there ever before state papers so full of its genuine, trustful and 
fervent spirit ? Who had before so humbly and yet so grandly 
laid down as a basis of his official action " the right as God gave 
him to see the right." 

With such rulers at the head of all nations how amicable would 
be the relations of governments ? How fast the progress of the 
world towards a universal brotherhood of the race, in which men 
would learn war no more, and national differences, even as indi- 
vidual differences, would be referred to a better tribunal than ju- 
dicial combat. 

Perhaps here again this beautiful life of our departed President 
is to impress upon the world this higher ideal of Christian states- 
iship. 

All hail, then, departed Hero! Mighty Regenerator of the Na- 
tion ! Illustrious Pounder of a new Period ! Emancipator of a 
Race! All hail, Christian Statesman and Martyr ! History shall 
award thee justice. Greater and greater, as thou goest down the 
ages, the memory of thee absent shall be even more potent than 
thy present hand. As one hemisphere has not contained thy fame, 
so both shall feel the impress of thy thoughts, thy words, thy acts. 

Representative of the grandest moral and political ideas — rep- 
resentative of the progress of the world's latest and best age — suc- 
cessful beyond thy own dreams, and in the hour of triumph seal- 
ing thy work with thy life — thou shalt be henceforth among our 
Presidents — until a greater appear — the first in charity, first in 
achievements, first in the hearts of thy countrymen. 



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